ding Christ alone, I would not have been
moved by either the one or the other of these criticisms; and I
wish that I could get above this sort of thing, and get beyond the
attempt at pleasing men at all. Why should we confer with men?'

James Gilmour was ordained as a missionary to Mongolia in Augustine
Chapel, Edinburgh, on February 10, 1870, and, in accordance with
Nonconformist custom, he made a statement about the development of his
religious life from which we take the following extract:--

'My conversion took place after I had begun to attend the Arts
course in the University of Glasgow. I had gone to college with no
definite aim as to preparing for a profession; an opportunity was
offered me of attending classes, and I embraced it gladly,
confident that whatever training or knowledge I might there acquire
would prove serviceable to me afterwards in some way or other.

'After I became satisfied that I had found the "way of life," I
decided to tell others of that way, and felt that I lay under
responsibility to do what I could to extend Christ's kingdom. Among
other plans of usefulness that suggested themselves to me was that
of entering the ministry. But, in my opinion, there were two things
that everyone who sought the office of the ministry should have,
viz., an experimental knowledge of the truth which it is the work
of the minister to preach, and a good education to help him to do
it; the former I believed I had, the latter I hoped to obtain. So I
quietly pursued the college course till I entered on the last
session, when, after prayerful consideration and mature
deliberation, I thought it my duty to offer myself as a candidate
for the ministry.

'Having decided as to the capacity in which I should labour in
Christ's kingdom, the next thing which occupied my serious
attention was the _locality_ where I should labour. Occasionally
before I had thought of the relative claims of the home and foreign
fields, but during the summer, session in Edinburgh I thought the
matter out, and decided for the mission field; even on the low
ground of common sense I seemed to be called to be a missionary. Is
the kingdom a harvest field? Then I thought it reasonable that I
should seek to work where the work was most abundant and the
workers fewest. Labourers say they ar